Pena, for LONE STAR if nothing else (and there is more)

God do I love that movie! Now that I've actually been to that part of Texas, I should probably see it again.

Finally saw PAN'S LABYRINTH and I loved, Loved, LOVED it. Put me squarely in the camp that feels that everything that Ofelia saw really happened and the ending is a happy one. Even if there weren't two things I'd consider tells, I'd feel that way - it certainly seems more unambiguously a happy ending than CHILDREN OF MEN. But both her brief escape from Vidal in the labyrinth via the walls (though you could make a case that he was lagging due to the drugged drink), and, more tellingly, how else could she get out of her locked room in the first place. This is similar to THE SHINING (Kubrick version) in that almost everything COULD just be Jack going crazy and taking his family with him, except for who let him out of the storage locker. And even the chalk is almost a tell - where did she get the chalk if the faun didn't give it to her?

Anyway, loved it.

Saw Blades of Glory last night. I wasn't expecting much, so I wasn't disappointed. It's no Dodgeball, but it's passable. Will Ferrell and Will Arnett are both hysterical (even if Will Arnett isn't given nearly enough to do, he is the only one of the cast who can actually skate). Jon Heder continues to baffle me -- why do people think he's funny, again? Amy Poehler (no, I don't know how her name is really spelled) is also good but underused, ditto Jenna Fischer.

The plot is beyond sloppy and inane -- if you were really really drunk and The Cutting Edge was on TV, and then you wrote a parody version in your sleep, it would come out something like this.

(I actually had a much better time at it than I'm making it sound, but I wouldn't recommend anyone actually PAY to see it. Wait for the DVD, or see something good and then sneak in.)

Dnevnoi Dozor opens June 1st.

I just saw Ein Kleid aus Warschau (A Dress From Warsaw), the new Esther Dischereit film. It was pretty good, though it felt somewhat underdeveloped.

I just got back from seeing Paprika, which was a very strange movie.

If you've seen Kon's other work (Perfect Blue, Millennium Actress), the imagery here will be very familiar, but it's been distilled down into its purest and trippiest form, and stripped of all but the barest outlines of a movie. (Like, there's a police investigation at the heart of it, but it becomes clear pretty early on that the stolen device is merely flobotanum, and the scifi details of how it works and why it's dangerous may be safely ignored.)

Still, highly recommend for anyone who's liked Kon's other work. Some of the images here are breathtakingly gorgeous, and some are utterly creepy in a very anime kind of way (read: young women and tentacles). Sometimes both in the same frame!

Sean, it looks like Joss agrees with you about the Captivity billboard. Scroll down.

Dnevnoi Dozor opens June 1st.

Shit, dude. That looks fifteen times cooler than Night Watch, the "Chalk of Fate" notwithstanding.

Watched Harsh Times last night. That's two hours of my life I'll never get back.

I'm just glad to see that Anton and Olga will be featured prominently... I thought the sequel was going to be all about their Daywatch counterparts rather than the characters from the first film.